Author Brings Navigating the Lipstick Jungle to GCU WILD Women

Georgian Court’s Women in Leadership Development Focus on Empowerment

Lakewood, N.J., Feb. 15, 2012—Tarzans swinging past plain Janes on their way to the top of the concrete jungle may soon be dangling by a thread, according to author and motivational speaker Jane Hight McMurry who will be at Georgian Court University on Tuesday, February 21, to meet members of GCU’s Women in Leadership Development (WILD).

Ms. McMurry, the writer behind the forthcoming Navigating the Lipstick Jungle: Go from Plain Jane to Getting What You Want, Need, and Deserve! (Stellar Publishing, April 2012) is a featured guest speaker for the group’s 6:30-8:30 p.m. gathering in Georgian Court’s North Dining Room. The event is not open to the general public, but media interested in coverage of women’s issues are welcome to attend.

GCU’s WILD initiative is one of the university’s signature programs that works to help women assume critical leadership roles in their careers and communities. Over the course of several years, students participate in several WILD phases that focus on personal exploration, professional development, leadership philosophy, mentoring, and application of knowledge and skills.

WILD participants often hear from leading experts in various fields, including career coaches and motivational speakers like Ms. McMurry.

Her new book, Navigating the Lipstick Jungle, is considered a modern woman’s safari-style program designed to show women what they must have—beyond education and technical skills—so they can get what they want, need, and deserve in business and in life. Ms. McMurry, whose credentials include teaching at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and UNC-Wilmington, aims to change the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistic that finds that despite equal education, technical skills, and laws to ensure equal rights and opportunity, women workers still earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn for jobs that are equal.

Ms. McMurry delights in teaching women how to recognize and create business opportunities and telling them what to say and do to be recognized as competent professionals.

“So just how does a woman get what she wants, needs, and deserves?” she asks. “The path begins at the floor of the jungle and wends its way to its uppermost reaches,” she says. “At ground level, she needs to know exactly what she wants and develop a plan for achieving it.”

Founded in 1908 and sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy, Georgian Court University is a comprehensive university with a strong liberal arts core and a special concern for women. A forward-thinking university that supports diversity and academic excellence, Georgian Court serves more than 2,500 students of all faiths and backgrounds in a residential Women's College and a coeducational University College with undergraduate and graduate programs. Georgian Court's main campus is located at 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood, N.J., on the picturesque former George Jay Gould estate, now named a National Historic Landmark. Georgian Court also offers classes at its site at One Woodbridge Center in Woodbridge, at Coastal Communiversity in Wall, and at Cumberland County College in Vineland.